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Not well, but I did spend a long weekend there. Beautiful old medieval town. Also lots of modern architecture a la Calatrava in the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias. Very cultural. Old riverbed drained and made into a long meandering park. Close to amazing long sandy beaches. After my weekend I did think that I could happily live there! Nearby is the home of paella, paddyfields in Spain!!! Good transport links. I'd imagine it's quiet hot in summer, There's also the Fallas in March time, which I've not seen, an amazing traditional fiesta.

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Paella and grilled fish, that covers cuisine nicely for me. Looks walkable too, not all dramatic levels like Porto. Rents seems low, but availability is unknown. That was the catch in San Miguel de Allende.

Flat, hospitable. A great park wanders through the middle where the Turia river used to be before Franco moved it.

I remember it for cheap lunches, but it's probably not €5 for two courses and wine anymore.

You can't get a drink after 0400, though. Seriously, they eat late. 2200 is well early, so if you can acclimatise to a crepuscular timetable you'll do well. They do have corrida.

The Fallas is spectacular- they set fire to a whole lot of stuff- and you can stand right underneath the fireworks. They build huge carnival floats and burn them down at the end. Mascletà are daylight fireworks rated for noise, not light, VERY LOUD.

Valencian paella is chicken and rabbit, not seafood, but I'm sure they'll find you something.

Edited July 10, 2018 by spacecadet

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The late Spanish dinner hour won't bother me, Mark, since I don't eat dinner anymore; I've been doing the 16/8 daily intermittent fasting for the last 4 years. And I'm not a vegetarian. I love rabbit and tolerate the tasteless chicken we get now. But I favor simple grilled fresh fish. If I could afford it, I'd move the Seattle or Portland for the wild Pacific salmon.

Valencia looks very inviting, but the Algarve is still on the top of my list. I speak neither Portuguese nor Spanish, but I know how to point and say, "this please" in several languages.

Pas mal. You should do fine. You're right, most younger people in Montreal are now totally bilingual thanks to a much improved education system. However, in rural areas of Quebec especially, there are still plenty of francophones (awful word) who speak little or no English. I was on a press trip to Venezuela a number of years ago with a journalist in his 30's who wrote for a newspaper in Quebec City. He barely spoke a word of English and no Spanish, which left him almost totally isolated. I had to be his interpreter using both my bad French and bad Spanish.

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I would note that when we head south through France in June (a regular trip in our motorhome/RV/camping-car) we meet people who have over-wintered in Spain but are heading north to escape the heat (apparently much of Spain can be into 30s Celsius even in early June, 40C, over 100 fahrenheit, is not uncommon during the summer). So being near a coast for the breeze is to be recommended, Atlantic is probably better than Mediterranean. Our daughter lived in Sevilla for 4 years, lovely city but inland and further south and west than Valencia which, unfortunately, is not a city I know. A few years ago I spent a New Year's Day in shirt sleeves on coast near Alicante, just a bit further south.

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My daughter spent a happy year in the orange groves not far from the city of Valencia in a small town called Algamesi. She found it friendly and relatively inexpensive, also well-connected by bus and train. There is a lot of holiday accommodation along the coast running south down to Denia and beyond that to Benidorm. We enjoyed visiting the inland areas such as Pego, Orba, Javier/Xavier (where are lots of expats living there and it is very set up for foreigners - and maybe, who knows reduced property prices with Brexit?).

I live in a small town in that area (Marina Alta, Alicante) since 3 years ago. Because I'm from the north of Spain, for me is quite hot in summer months (every day more than 30ºC and easily more than 35ºC) and rough sun. Valencia capital is even hotter.

But the winters are so nice, quite warm compared to the rest of Europe or even Spain itself. Most of european cycling teams come to this area in winter months for preseason trainings.

As Geo said, the coast is full with lots of retired expats from all over Europe, especially English, Dutch, German and Belgian.

Valencia is a hour and a half from here by car. Need car for almost everything.

The light and the air are different here. Luminous and pure mediteranean blue.

If you need more info, please ask.

The best of lucks with your research. Sure you will do fine wherever you choose.

Edited July 19, 2018 by shearwaterMisspelling

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I know it's hot in Southern Europe in summer, having lived in Rome for 7 years. And it is not getting any cooler anywhere. It's been hitting 30-32 C here in Montreal since I arrived. And NYC? Don't ask.

If I can sort out getting a new Irish passport (I have the expired one and my Irish citizenship papers), I know I can enter and live anywhere in the EU. What is not clear . . . can I get Healthcare? Yes, I'm legally Irish and legally a Yank. But I've never paid into the Irish or any other EU health system. I lived in Oxfordshire in the '80s, but that was before the EU.

Regarding language: I have the skills of a musician and an actor, and I pride myself on accurate pronunciation in all tongues. Great, eh? But I don't seem to be able to learn any new vocabulary. Hmm. Not so great.

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Sounds like the high temp isn’t that different from NYC. Not that I’ve lived there, but the temps are quite often noted since a few television shows originate from NYC.

I see you have posted and agreed with my remarks, Ed, since I started typing. Besides the fact that living in NYC, one is surrounded by concrete, brick and asphalt, all reflecting the heat from the sun. So quite often, the posted temperatures which, I believe, are taken in the shade over dirt or grass, doesn’t feel like what NYC citizens feel walking down a sidewalk.

Of course, Cental Park probably feels quite different!

I remember a football game I attended at the beginning of American football season in Oklahoma. It was 107F at kickoff. We sat in the sun, smashed shoulder to shoulder with sweating bench mates. The radio said the temperature for those people was 120F. People were dropping like flies. This was before 9-11 and I was allowed to bring in a 1 gallon jug full of ice and water. I used a small towel wet from the jug for around my neck, sipped the ice water, and managed to survive. After 9-11, we couldn’t bring anything into the stadium. I spent a lot of time in the shady tunnels under the bleachers blotting my face with paper towels wet with tepid water, while peeking at the game from openings until the sun set.

I know it's hot in Southern Europe in summer, having lived in Rome for 7 years. And it is not getting any cooler anywhere. It's been hitting 30-32 C here in Montreal since I arrived. And NYC? Don't ask.

If I can sort out getting a new Irish passport (I have the expired one and my Irish citizenship papers), I know I can enter and live anywhere in the EU. What is not clear . . . can I get Healthcare? Yes, I'm legally Irish and legally a Yank. But I've never paid into the Irish or any other EU health system. I lived in Oxfordshire in the '80s, but that was before the EU.

Regarding language: I have the skills of a musician and an actor, and I pride myself on accurate pronunciation in all tongues. Great, eh? But I don't seem to be able to learn any new vocabulary. Hmm. Not so great.

Edwardo

Hi Edo

My understanding is that if you are tax resident in any EU country and declaring an income then you should qualify for health care. It might be that you have to have enough income that you are paying some social security but hopefully pension, Alamy etc will qualify you.

You might look at the possibility of acquiring an Irish EHIC card which will give you access to health care anywhere in EU on same terms as the locals; most have some form of universal health care. If it is like the UK, and at your age, that would mean most healthcare and pharmacy (eye tests but not glasses or dental though) costs are free. The only thing I am not sure about is whether the EHIC card will require permanent (tax) residence in Ireland - just checked but you need to be ordinarily resident in Ireland. But that probably means the rules are the same in Spain for the EHIC so you should qualify the card so I assume you would qualify for healthcare once you have residency.

I suspect living in Spain and becoming part of the Spanish, rather than ex-pat, community the vocabulary will come. Especially if you put in some effort, which I am sure you will.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Martin P Wilson

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Ed, the UK joined the EEC as it then was in 1973, but I don't think your residence here will help you in Spain. You may need private insurance until you're registered as a resident, which you are required to do within 3 months.